Castles in the Rain
by AllyCats and Agents
Summary: She didn't know who she was, she didn't know where she came from or what happened. All she knew was that everything about her body was wrong, and her only clue is the whisper in her mind. To find the castle in the rain. But in a ninja village things tend to get complicated. Fast.
1. Chapter 1

When she woke up it was in confusion. Darkness surrounded her and something sharp pressed against her side, making it difficult for her breath. But breath she did, breath in the all too familiar sent of copper tinged destruction. Dust filled her lungs and what she identified as shattered wood threatened to pierce her hand as she shifted around, trying to feel where the pressure resided most heavily. On her back leg, which was suspiciously numb, and her left foot, which was definitely trapped. With a groan that sounded too high pitched to be her own she tugged her limbs, grimacing when the wood sliced through but let her pass. Blood pooled around her feet and the woman reached down to check over the muscle on her legs. It was…soft. Her skin, he formerly solid calves, and what should have been very calloused feet felt like she was a twenty some things year old house wife. With another check she found her hands were the same way.

"What?" she muttered, freezing when her voice reached her ears. That was not her voice. These were not her hands. She pulled her leg to her chest and took in a slow breath, trying not to cough. There wasn't much air in her trapped place, the lack of light proved it, and she didn't need to start wasting it on hyperventilating.

After feeling around for something to give way she finally gave up, realizing that she was trapped on the inside. All she could do now was wait.

* * *

She did wait, and eventually her waiting paid off. She had fallen into a sleep like state, controlling her breathing and forcing her heart beat to slow until it was near none existent, giving her a longer time to live. It had been harder than it should have been, the body not wanting to respond to her mind, but she had managed to pull it off. Then there was a sound from outside her dark prison and she shifted to her knees, ripped up shirt acting as a bandage to keep her from bleeding to death.

After a few moments she took a chance.

"Hello?" she called, and the movement stopped. Doubts filtered into her mind. What if they were enemies? What if they had trapped her here in the first place? She ignored the question of where 'here' was.

Then there was talking, loud, Japanese, talking. She bit her lip and focusing on the archive of her mind that held languages, mentally picturing it as a selection screen in a video game.

"_Hello?" _she repeated, this time in their language. The result was a series of shouts and suddenly the ground was moving, the darkness lifted and arms circled around her body. They grabbed her leg and the light struck her eyes.

Embarrassingly she screamed.

* * *

When she awoke it was to the white walls of a hospital, the familiar sent of chemicals drifting into her nose and the white walls painfully bright. She squinted and shifted, finding she could sit up. Her leg was bandaged up and elevated in a cast, her foot in a lesser state. There were bandages on her right arm and when she reached up to touch her hair she found it short, singed at the edges and also wound with gauze.

She pulled her hand away, staring down at the soft, smooth skin, bruised and cut in a few places. It was not her hand. It was too small, too frail, too soft. Her legs were too thin, so were her arms, even with the days of not eating. The near permanent tan that she had was missing. A look at the bed revealed that she was far too short, much too small.

Something had happened. She searched her memories.

Nothing.

She frowned.

Nothing.

No, there wasn't nothing, but there was something, just out of reach, something she couldn't quite get to. She shook her head. She would deal with it when she took a shower. She paused.

A shower.

_No, not a shower._

What?

_Rain. _

Rain?

_Yes, rain_. She needed rain.

But the window showed none.

What would she even do with rain?

_Sit in it._

Why the hell would she do that?

_Because castles appear when she did._

What?

She shook her head and laid back down, giving up and closing her eyes. She would figure it out, she decided, when she woke up and didn't have a broken leg.

* * *

Doctors were anxious about her, asking questions and prodding her this way and that. She answered them with as much truth as she could.

"What's your name?"

"Ask me later."

"Where are you from?"

"Not here."

"Where are your parents?"

"Dead.''

"Can you tell me how many fingers I'm holding up?"

"Three and your thumb."

"How old are you?''

"Older than I look."

"Are you trying to be difficult?"

"Maybe."

"Do you remember anything?"

"Almost."

And eventually, after hours of grilling and drawing blood the physicians left her alone to ponder her situation. More specifically the humiliation of a bed pan. She glared heatedly at it before deciding that she would not be using it. With care she pulled her leg out of the sling, swinging her legs over the side carefully and pushing off of the bed. Her leg almost gave out from under her and she stared at the IV in her arm. Carefully she removed it and made her way to the connected bathroom, briefly considering walking on her hands before she realized her arms couldn't handle it.

With her business done and the exhaustion of medication and dehydration setting in the girl hobbled back to the bed, pushed the IV back in the exact place it had come from and lay back down, once more falling asleep.

* * *

For the next week she stayed mostly unconscious, only waking up when a doctor came in and answering their questions to the best of her ability. She had been diagnosed with amnesia, and the doctors were still trying to get her to remember anything.

"It would be easier if someone would tell me something. Where you found me, why I was alone, why it smelled like blood."

"We can't."

"Can't or won't."

"You don't need to know."

"How many people died?

Silence.

"That many huh? "

"You should get some sleep."

She did. The doctors left, their strange, tan uniforms rustling quietly as they vanished from the room. And with no other choice she slept again.

* * *

The next time she came to there was another man that came in with her doctors, a man with a grey beard, draped in white and red robes and a strangely shaped hat. The girl stared at him blankly, eyes taking in his old, wrinkled features.

"Hello."

"What do you want?"

He raised a brow.

"I can't simply ask how you are?"

She frowned.

"Are you going to ask stupid questions like them?" her eyes flicked to the doctors, who were slowly turning red. They did not like the difficult amnesiac.

"I don't think you're wellbeing is stupid."

She shrugged.

"I think I'll live. But no one will tell me jack shit."

"Oh?" he looked amused and curious, "nothing?"

"Nothing. All they did is ask what I remember, which I don't, and tell me I didn't need to know why I was stuck in the dark for days in a place that smelled like blood."

He sighed and pulled a chair up, motioning for the physicians to leave. They did so and she sat up as well, looking at him curiously.

"It's not a good story," he began, and the girl gave him a flat look. She knew that.

"I know that."

"We don't fully know what happened, but when we found you you were in a caved in house in a village that had been destroyed. You're the only one we found."

"The only one alive?"

His expression was grim.

"No. The only one we found."

She blinked and stared at him.

"Oh."

"Do you know anything about yourself?"

She shook her head.

"No. Sorry sir, I can't remember anything. I know the memories are there, I just can't find them. Like…like there's a curtain that they're hiding behind."

"I see. You'll tell the doctors if you remember anything?"

"No."

He raised a brow.

"No?"

"No," she repeated more firmly. She glared at the door.

"Why not?"

"They don't show me any respect, they hide things from me. I don't like them."

He laughed.

"It's not funny!"

He stopped and stood up, smiling gently down at her.

"I'll have to visit again then," he reached out and ruffled her hair, leaving the girl to swipe futilely at his hand as she left. The doctors came back and she stared at them blankly, missing the only man.

_And the rain. _


	2. Chapter 2

It was another week before the old man returned and the girl still didn't remember anything, nothing, except for the _rain. _Thanks to the healing of the doctors, a strange things that made their hands glow and her leg tingle with warm pins and needles, her leg no longer needed to be elevated, the lacerations on her arm were gone and he face was healed. Except for the only familiar part of it, the three claw marks on her right cheek. As if she had been scratched by a very large cat cat. They were fresh, probably from the wood, she assumed, but when she actually saw herself in the mirror it felt like they had been there for years.

From her first glance in the glass she knew her suspicions were confirmed. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to look like, but it wasn't that. Not quite at least.

She was six at the most, short and skinny, soft and delicate. Clearly a civilian to anyone with eyes. Speaking of her own were Green, which was indeed the right color, and her hair was a rust color and forced short, barely two inches in length at the top of her head.

What's wrong with me?

_A lot._

Who are you?

_You._

What?

_That's who I am._

You can't be me, I'm me.

_I'm the you you forgot to be._

If you're me than who am I?

_Find the rain. _

Why?

_Because you need the castle._

It was during this specific conversation that the man came back, dressed the same as before. She looked up at him, green eyes blinking twice when a blond, scarred man came walking in behind him. She sat a little straighter, tilting her head to the side.

"Good morning," the man greeted.

"Is it?"

"Why don't you tell me?"

"Who'd you bring?"

"This is a friend of mine, we think he can help."

"How?"

"By recovering your memories."

"Okay. But how?"

The blond stepped forward, smiling at her and crouching down to her level.

"I can go in to your mind and see if there's any way to get you to remember. Do you want to try?"

She gave him a dubious look.

"I feel like that might not be good for my mental health."

"It was a traumatic experience."

"One no one will tell me anything about. Did you find anyone else?"

"No, not yet."

"Are you still looking?"

"Yes."

"Okay. How much longer do I have to stay here?"

"Until your leg is better."

"And then what?"

"Well, if your parents really are dead-"

"They are." She knew that they were.

"Then you'll be put up for adoption and live in the orphanage until then."

"Fantastic,' her sarcasm made them men smile.

"Do you want to try and remember?"

"No, I'm fine for now. You wouldn't happen to know my name would you?"

They gave her sad looks.

"No, we don't."

"Well I can't just be that-weird-girl-with-amnesia-and-dead-parents. I need a name…"

"How about I have my daughter bring a book with names in them?" the blond man asked.

"You're daughter?"

"Yes, she's about your age, maybe younger."

Definitely younger.

"Okay. What's her name? And yours?"

"I'm Yamanaka Inoichi, and her name is Ino."

The girl nodded and the men left.

* * *

Ino came the next day with a book and bunch of Yarrow flowers.

"Why Yarrow?"

"They mean health."

"Oh. You have a name book?"

"Yes! Look, we can you find you one, there's tons!"

The next hour was spent looking through the book, and hour after that was Ino telling the girl, who had settled on Anna. At first she had thought about Ami, but Ino told her about a bully at her school with that name and with a strange wave of anger at the bully Anna became her name.

And Anna listened to Ino talk, chattering on about her parents flower shop, her dad, her mom, the new friend she had made at school, the boy she liked, the village they were in, anything and everything. And Anna listened.

And Anna learned.

* * *

Four weeks passed and she was finally being released. Ino visited at least once a day, sometimes bringing a shy little girl with pink hair with her. That girl was called Sakura. She hid behind Ino most of the time.

"You know I don't bite right?"

"I-I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For, for, um…"

"Whatever you're sorry for don't worry about it."

"Okay."

"So what do you like to do, Sakura?"

"I like playing with Ino..."

And it went on.

* * *

The day before she was to be released Anna was restless. The thought of an orphanage did not sound right, the thought of adoption from people she didn't sounded worse. She expressed her concerns to Ino who nodded sagely and crossed her arms.

"Then you'll just have to come live with us."

Anna was silent, staring stunned at the blonde little five year old.

"I'm sure my dad wouldn't mind, he likes you, and mom will too. You'll come live with us and then we can be sisters!"

"But Ino, we're friends, doesn't that already make us sister?"

Ino grinned and jumped up.

"Yes! I'll go tell dad you're moving in with us!"

And then she was gone.

* * *

Ino kept to her word, standing before her father, feet planted and determination set. Inoichi looked down at his daughter, recognizing the look reserved for when she wanted something she knew she probably couldn't have.

"We're adopting Anna."

He stared at her after her declaration, arching a brow.

"We are?"

"Yes! And if you don't I'll ask mom and she'll make you do it!"

It wasn't an empty threat. The man stared at her and she stared right back at him, waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Anna had been telling her patients was virtue.

"I'll go talk to your mother," he muttered at last, sagging. Ino cheered and tackled him in a hug.

* * *

The day she got out she did indeed go to live with Ino and her family, who were, apparently, ninja. And all blonde. All of them. She stared before moving on in the strange compound, separate from the flower shop and absolutely huge. There were court yards and sliding screen doors, wood flooring and open windows. It was nice. She got a room right next to Ino's. Ino's mother, hers now too, called them to dinner and she sat down, looking at the family with a strange shyness.

Did she even belong here?

No, no she didn't.

But it was better than the alternative.

She thanked the Yamanaka and listened to Ino recount tails of school.

"What about you Anna?"

She looked up from her plate, surprise coloring her cheeks.

"Are you going to be a ninja?" the eldest woman asked, smiling at her pleasantly. She shrugged.

"I don't know. I might."

She would.

Somewhere deep down she knew there was no other way.

She would become ninja, because what else would she do, sell flowers?


	3. Chapter 3

**Forgot to mention that I don't own anything.**

* * *

As it turned out she could sell flowers, and did so regularly. While Ino was being trained in the clans secret techniques she helped her new mother, a brown haired, brown eyed woman of regal demeanor who dressed to match her personality. They passed out flowers to customers and Anna quickly memorized the meanings. There was still that strange instinct to call up memories in files, mentally scrolling through information, though she could not remember why. But it worked, well organized and easily retaining any information she obtained.

Anything, from Ino's talk of her friends to the idle gossip of mothers shopping on the flower shops street. She was in the village of Konohagakure, which translated into 'the village hidden in the leaves' in the language that she thought in. It was a ninja village, something she could find no shred of familiarity of, but something she understood vaguely. Ninja were trained and used as tools for the good of the village and country.

She knew, somehow, that that was what she was meant to be as well.

Or what she had been.

She wasn't sure.

Her spare hours, the hours that had Ino in her ninja classes, or with her father, and that Nanao Yamanaka told her to go out and play she spent holed up in the library, researching, trying to understand and learn. Eventually she slowed down. There was no hurry, she was living with kind people, she had friends, two of them in fact, and for the time being she was safe.

_Not true._

Yes she was.

_No, nowhere is safe. Find the rain!_

Why the rain?

_For the castles!_

What castle?

_Yours._

What?

She shook her head, leaving the library to join Ino and Sakura at the park for a play date. The sun shone in her eyes and she reached up, tugging the short ends of her hair. It felt like it should have been longer, but not much, and darker, less red. She shook her head and hopped down the steps, her short legs carrying her to the park.

Grass gave way beneath her feet as she crossed the threshold of concrete and Anna started walking into the park, looking for her sister and her friend. They were off playing with flowers, which, as much as she liked knowing about them, was not something that appealed to the girl. So she watched from a distance before turning around and walking away.

She was all the way down the hill and into one of the many patches of forest in the village when she heard the sounds.

"You think you're better than us?"

"Don't look like that."

"Are you gonna cry now?"

"What, not gonna use your stupid eyes on us?"

"I-I-I-I didn't mean-"

"Don't talk back!"

A cold wave of fury washed over her from an unknown source and Anna started running, straight towards the voices. The threes broke into a clearing and she took half a second to process the scene.

Five little boys were standing around one, not quite crying, little girl.

She attacked, lashing out with a series of rapid, brutal kicks and punches, her body straining at the movement but her mind, the part that she couldn't quite reach, had taken over and she knew exactly where to hit them so it hurt but wouldn't last.

Rib, thigh, ankle, kidney's.

The last boy dropped down, howling as he clutched his 'special' place.

She stood over them, towering over the now sprawled out, bruised children before her.

"What, it take five boys to push around one little girl? It that really how weak you are? That's pathetic."

"What would you know?"

"Yeah!"

"You're not even a ninja!"

"And you are?"

"We will be! Then you'll be sorry!"

"If the future rests in the hands of people as easy to beat as you I fear for the next generation."

They all turned varying shades of red and ran off, mostly limping. Anna turned around to the girl and knelt as her side, resting a gently, still bandaged hand on her forearm. The girl looked up in surprise, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. They stared at the slightly bigger girl in wide, blank lavender, dark hair bobbing around her head. A yellow jacket was draped around her, torn at the sleeve and there were small scraps on her hands where she fell.

"Are you alright?" she asked, keeping her voice steady. The little girl nodded, diverting her eyes immediately.

"Y-yes, I'm fine."

"You sure?"

She nodded again.

"Good. I hate bullies."

That was something she knew for certain.

"Do you wanna play with me?" she asked suddenly, and a startled look was given to her. She paused and offered her hand, standing up. "I'm Anna."

"H-Hinata H-Hyuuga," she murmured, taking the offered and hand and letting Anna pull her up. Anna awarded her a rarely given smile.

"It's nice to meet you Hinata. So do you?"

"Y-y-yes…"

And so they did. They played tag and hide and seek, something that Anna lost every time. She didn't mind though, praising Hinata on her skills. The little girl would blush brightly and smile, poking her fingers together and thanking her. They stayed like that until a boy Anna's age appeared and called Hinata away, giving them both very cold looks.

"Hinata!"

The girl spun around from where she had been walking away, looking surprised.

"Come play with me again?"

The little girl smiled and nodded, waving as she left.

Anna watched them go and returned to the library.

* * *

Another week went by and Hinata and Anna started meeting up in the park to play while the boy, whose name was Neji, watched on. Hinata and Anna both asked if he wanted to join, but his glare sent them scurrying off to their own games.

Then a very similar thing happened again.

They were hiding and seeking in the woods when there was the familiar sound of a fight. With a look at each other the two ran in the direction it came from. Well, Anna did and Hinata followed, Neji trailing behind them with a sour look on his face.

They stopped in a gap in the trees where the grass began, shrubs dotting the border. Just beyond the carefully manicured three line was a little blonde boy, no older than hinata, fighting valiantly a series of assailants, all of them spewing hurtful words.

"No one wants you here."

"Shut up! I'm going to be the next Hokage, and then you'll be sorry!"

"That'll never happen!"

"You should just leave!"

"Go away!"

The other two were in the middle of punching and kicking him, and thus could not add in their bits.

The same anger came over her and she moved.

She fell upon them, jabbing the soft tissue under arms of one and pinching painful point on the neck of another. An arm circled her from behind and she dug her heels in, grabbed the arms and flung her upper torso forward, sending her attacked off and onto the ground. She spun to face the others but found them already on the ground, the blonde standing over two and Neji standing over the others.

She didn't bother lecturing these ones, just spit in the face of the boy that ad seemed the leader and grabbed the younger children's hands before marching away, dragging them with her into the sun light and sitting them down at the very top of the hill.

_Good vantage point. _

She turned towards the blond and at last let go of the two.

"Are you alright?"

He was staring at her, surprised.

"Why did you do that?!"

She cringed at his volume.

"What?"

"Why did you help me?"

"Because…"

Why did she help him?

Oh yeah.

"Because I don't like bullies."


	4. Chapter 4

After the initial meeting the blond boy, named Naruto Uzumaki, joined their group, playing with her an Hinata while Neji watched from the side lines. The ran through the woods, practiced climbing trees and talking. Well, she and Naruto talked while Hinata listened to them chat about life. Ino even brought Sakura over to play with sometimes.

The smallest girl even started bringing them lunch to eat.

It was nice. Peaceful, even.

_But peace never lasts. _

* * *

"I want to be a ninja."

Inoichi looked down at his new charge, Anna, and found green eyes meeting his squarely. A fierce determination was lit in them and he couldn't but think that that look was not one most children would have.

"Really?"

He had suspicions about her. Her story was strange. Amnesia, the sole remaining inhabitant of a village that bordered the Land of Waves, no family known, not even a name. It seemed suspicious, and he was a ninja. It was his job to worry about things like that. But she hadn't shown any signs of being a threat, and Ino absolutely adored her.

So when she told him she wanted to be a ninja and join the academy he was only a little bit surprised. At last he nodded.

"Alright. We'll take you in to sign up tomorrow."

Her smile put the sun to shame.

* * *

Her first day of the Academy was nerve wracking, until she got to the front of the school, Ino at one side and Sakura on the other, and saw Hinata and Naruto there, as well as Neji and the two boys that sometimes came over to see Ino, Choji and Shikamaru.

Before she could say anything the bell rang and Ino took her to the classroom, as she was somehow in the same class as her sister. The moment she stepped in there was a shout of 'Anna!' from a familiar little boy. She waved at him, smiling easily.

She stood in front of the class at the request of her teacher, shoulders tense and eyes forward at the multitude of children before her.

"Hello," she began, "I'm Anna, I just moved here. I like reading, and playing with me friends."

She started walking to her seat before pausing.

"Oh, and I don't like bullies."

She sat down next to Ino, on the edge of one desk, with Sakura on the blondes other side. Across the way was Naruto, who tried to talk to her until Iruka yelled at them. For the third time.

Class passed quicker than she would have thought possible, recess, gym, lunch, and studying the theory and practice of chakra. The only part she wasn't behind on was gym, which was actually Taijutsu training, something she clearly excelled at. After her first three partners were on their backs. After that she was paired a dark haired boy named Sasuke Uchiha.

She flipped him over and pointed out that his weight was on his heels. It should have been on the balls of his feet.

That went on for weeks and still it had not rained.

Until the night that it did.

* * *

Anna was laying in her bed, curled up and sleeping soundly in the Yamanaka compound when a sound woke her up, thunder rolling in the sky. She sat bolt upright, blankets falling to the ground as she stared into the darkness. The rain. She scrambled out of her bed and launched herself out of the room, socks slipping as she skidded. Then remembered that there were ninja here.

She stopped and slowed down, creeping through the hallways until she reached the most secluded of the courtyard. Rain poured down, pelting the ground in cold water. After a few minutes she stepped out into it, breathing the sent that was somehow familiar.

Now what did she do?

_Sit._

She did.

_Cross your hands._

She obeyed.

_Stack your fingers._

They were stacked.

_Close your eyes._

She did.

And then there was a castle.


	5. Chapter 5

**Very short chapter! Sorry. **

* * *

It stretched out in front of her, looming high above her head. The turrets seemed to stretch into the sky and the castle itself never appeared to end, only vanished into darkness. There was no light source that she might see by, only the castle and the blackness beyond. No sun, no lamps, not even a glow stick. But still she could see. There were cracks in the castle's stone walls, small ones that didn't look important but _felt_ dangerous. Carefully, with light footsteps and short strides, the girl walked forwards, up to the steel door. For a moment she tried to knock, but before she could it slid open, like the sliding paper doors in the compound, but louder, with more swish and less clack.

_Come in._

What?

Her head jerked around as she tried to locate the voice, but all she saw was a shadow vanish inside the doorway. A flicker of green eyes was all she got before there was silence and stillness again.

Anna stepped in, looking down at… nothing. There was no floor, nothing to hold her up, yet she stood there, on air, an endless abyss stretching out below her feet. With a serious of snaps lights turned on on either side of the hallway, guiding lights like a movie theatre's. With baited breath she walked forwards, arm stretched out to catch herself in case something happened and the floor that didn't exist gave way.

Off to either side were doors, writing on them in a language that was not the one Ino spoke, but the one she heard in her mind. She could read them, easily. They were dates, names, and places. The doors were the sliding steel type, like one she had entered through, looking strange in the stone walls.

As she walked she knew somehow that these doors were locked against all but her, and slowly the narrow hallway opened up into larger ones, and into ballrooms and kitchens, stables and studies, and all were empty. She walked and walked until she was sure her legs should have hurt but didn't. and then she walked some more.

At last she reached a frosted glass door. Wide eyes stared up at the top, at the name there and she reached up to trace it.

_Qvela_

All.

Her fingers curled around the handles and she yanked them open harshly, stumbling when they gave way. Her gaze met two eyes, darker than hers but still green, set in a small, sharp face and framed in twisted brown lock. She stared at the green eyes and slowly they turned brown. The glass and the white light that had shone through her vanished and was replaced by a brown bun and an older face, older than the one she had just been staring. She blinked up at the face Nanao Yamanaka.

_No!_

She jerked at the sudden screaming, a wail that threatened to blast her thoughts from her mind as it shot through her brain.

Tears of pain fought their way into her eyes and she sniffed, head starting to pound with pressure and building up until she thought it was going to burst. Arms wrapped around her and she clung tightly to Nanao, crying into her night shirt as her head was overcome with searing pain as the scream of rage continued. She didn't like it.

Stop.

It didn't.

Stop!

All she could do was cry into Nanao and hope that it went away, trembling in the woman's arms while the rain came down on them in sheets. She was never going in the rain again, castles be damned!


End file.
